Italy's Ivan Basso officially won the Giro d'Italia bike race Sunday, wearing the overall leader's pink jersey for the past 14 days.

This was no squeaker; Basso won by 9-minutes 18-seconds over his closest challenger Jose Gutierrez of Phonak. Gerolsteiner cyclist Robert Forster won the final stage in Milan in a bunch sprint at the finish. ...   more »

In case there was any doubt, Italy’s Ivan Basso showed the peloton that he’s in charge of the 2006 Giro d’Italia bike race.

The leader of Team CSC not only won another mountain stage, his third, on Saturday, but added at least a minute to all his challengers. ...   more »

Spectators on most difficult uphill finish on the most difficult day of this year's Giro d'Italia bike race witnessed two separate battles on Friday, about a 2 1/2 minutes apart.

Juan Garate (QuickStep) beat breakaway companion Jens Voigt (Team CSC) at the summit of Passo di San Pellegrino after the pair battled back and forth all the way up the mountain. ...   more »

A five-man breakaway battled to the finish Thursday as Stefan Schumacher won his second stage in the Giro d'Italia bike race.

Italy's Ivan Basso held onto the overall leader's pink jersey for the 11th day, and edged closer to winning the first half of his Giro - Tour de France double. If he wins both classics, he'd be the first cyclist since fellow countryman Marco Pantani did so in 1998. ...   more »

Overall leader Ivan Basso didn't contest Leonardo Piepoli's final sprint to the finish on a cold and rainy Plan de Corones on Wednesday, as the Italian cyclist for Saunier Duval won his second stage at the Giro d'Italia bike race.

While it was touted as the toughest stage of the 2006 Giro, the teams convinced organizers to go around the snowy Passo delle Erbe before the race started; and snow atop the Plan de Corones prompted a further shortening of the race on that trecherous final climb. ...   more »

Ivan Basso's singular winning effort against all challengers on the 10-mile climb to Monte Bondone's Giro d'Italia finish on Tuesday is drawing more comparisons between himself and Lance Armstrong.

Italian TV commentators could only say, "Lui è fuoriclasse, stesso Lance Armstrong" ("He is unequalled, like Lance Armstrong"), according to CyclingNews. ...   more »

Paolo Bettini broke his dry spell at the 2006 Giro d'Italia bike race with a sprint win in Brescia.

The QuickStep cyclist's win didn't threaten anyone at the top of the overall classification, as Ivan Basso held onto the leader's pink jersey for the 8th day. ...   more »

Giro d'Italia bike race leader Ivan Basso finished nearly 8 minutes behind stage winner Luis Laverde on Sunday, but that margin did nothing to threaten his hold on the leader's jersey.

Laverde, a Colombian on the Ceramica Panaria-Navigare team, and Francisco Perez attacked the 11-man breakaway that had an 8-minute gap over the peloton. Laverde timed his sprint to beat Perez at the line, while the rest of the breakaway arrived 7 seconds later. ...   more »

Italian cyclist Ivan Basso put more time on his rivals for the overall lead as the Giro d'Italia entered the first mountain stage of the final week on Saturday.

Leonardo Piepoli of Saunier-Duval crested the towering Colle S. Carlo with Basso, but the Smiling Assassin let Piepoli take all the risks on the descent to win Stage 13 by 44 seconds. ...   more »

A pair of crashes on steep descents helped decide the finish for a breakaway at the Giro d'Italia bike race.

Spanish cyclist Joan Horrach of Caisse d'Epargne won the 106-mile stage from Livorno to Sestri Levante on Friday as Ivan Basso arrived seven minutes later with his overall lead safely intact. ...   more »

German cyclist Jan Ullrich used the Giro d'Italia on Thursday to tell us he's ready for the Tour de France.

Ullrich won the 31-mile individual time trial from Pontedera to Pisa and back again, beating the closest finisher, current Giro leader Ivan Basso, by 28 seconds, and everyone else by more than a minute. ...   more »

It doesn't seem to happen often, but sometimes the cyclists in a breakaway beat the peloton. It helps if the lead group contains about 20 bike riders, as it did Tuesday in Stage 10 of the Giro d'Italia bike race.

After sitting in the breakaway all day, Franco Pellizotti of the Liquigas team attacked on the uphill finish in Peschici and sprinted over the finish. Although he moved up from 32nd place, displacing 4th place Paolo Savoldelli (Discovery), Team CSC's Ivan Basso still holds the overall lead. ...   more »

Make a note, Paolo Bettini: Don't raise your arms to celebrate a win unless you come in first.

QuickStep's sprinter struck the celebratory pose crossing the finish line for Stage 8 at the Giro d'Italia bike race, but it was Tomas Vaitkus of AG2R who won the stage. Giro favorite Ivan Basso keeps the leader's pink jersey, with little change in the overall classification. ...   more »

They way that Ivan Basso scampered up the final climb in Stage 8 of the Giro d'Italia leaves little doubt why he's favored to win the bike race this year.

Basso -- what's he called, the Smiling Assassin -- is a strong climber and has adopted the high revolution spinning style of Lance Armstrong. Also, Basso rides for an excellent team -- Team CSC -- with one of the best managers, former Tour de France winner Bjarne Riis. ...   more »

The leading contenders in this year's Giro d'Italia bike race climbed the overall standings in the longest stage on Saturday, and the first in the mountains.

Serguei Honchar took the overall leader's pink jersey back from T-Mobile teammate Olaf Pollack as last year's winner Paolo Savoldelli (Discovery) and favorite Ivan Basso (Team CSC) climbed into second and third place overall. ...   more »

Australian sprint specialist Robbie McEwen won his third stage of the Giro d'Italia bike race Friday, the 11th of his career.

The Davitamon-Lotto cyclist sat on Tomas Vaitkus's wheel as the peloton raced to the finish in Forli, then drove past him in the last 100 yards to take the win. Olaf Pollack (T-Mobile) finished second, and took the overall lead from teammate Serguei Honchar. ...   more »

The top 10 racers in the Giro d'Italia bike race are mostly cyclists from Team CSC, T-Mobile, and Discovery after those three teams finished 1, 2, 3 in Thursday's team time trial.

The biggest benefactor of Team CSC's 1-second win over T-Mobile and 39-second margin over Discovery was Ivan Basso, who moved up to fifth place, 11 seconds behind current race leader Serguei Gonchar of T-Mobile. Gerolsteiner's Stefan Schumacher, bike race leader for the past two days, dropped to 8th place, 31 seconds back. ...   more »

Sprint specialist Alessandro Petacchi, who leads active cyclists for stage wins at the Giro d'Italia bike race, is sitting out the rest of the three-week tour of Italy with a broken kneecap.

The "Ale-Jet's" departure left the field open to Davitamon-Lotto's Robbie McEwen, who won his second stage Tuesday, the fourth and final stage of the race in Belgium. German rider Stefan Schumacher retained his 13 second lead over Paolo Savoldelli (Discovery Channel) for the overall lead. ...   more »

Rainy weather and slick pavement created some costly accidents in Monday's stage of the Giro d'Italia bike race, but it all worked out for German cyclist Stefan Schumacher.

The cyclist for Gerolsteiner won Stage 3 in the Belgian city of Namur after taking the lead in the final half-mile. His win gave him a 13-second lead over Paolo Savoldelli, the Discovery rider who had to give up the leader's pink jersey. ...   more »

Last year the sprinters let super-sprinter Alessandro Petacchi's Fasso Bortolo team lead them to sprint finishes at the Giro d'Italia bike race; now it's "Ale-Jet's" new Team Milram leading the charge.

And like last year, the sprinters in Sunday's Stage 2 used their own tactics and speed to beat Petacchi to the finish. ...   more »

Discovery Channel cyclist Paolo Savoldelli kept himself in the pink leader's jersey Saturday by winning the 3.8-mile prologue in the Giro d'Italia.

The Italian cyclist on the US-based pro team won the three-week bike race around Italy last year for the second time. His 11-second win Saturday gives him the stage and general classification lead in the race that ends May 28. ...   more »

Take a deep breath; the spring warm-ups are behind us and the first of the three-week classics, the Giro d'Italia bicycle race, begins Saturday and runs through May 28.

After the opening four days in distant Belgium to commemorate Italians who died in a coal mine accident there 50 years ago, expect the hill climbers to shine as the organizers mapped out five mountaintop finishes once the race returns to Italy for its final 17 days. ...

You can follow the 89th Giro d'Italia bicycle race, which begins Saturday, by watching live video streaming on the Internet on most days over the next three weeks.

A couple of cycling websites offer up-to-the-minute updates, as well as race summaries and results. Video reports are also available -- in Italian -- at the Gazzetta dello Sport's Giro official website. You can use Babelfish to translate the rest. ...   more »